Chapter 8
Cilla drifted off to sleep while Heath was with her. He found out from her doctor that she would be there for at least another night. Heath asked her nurse to tell Cilla he would be back later in the day, and then he returned to the ward where Jarrod was.
Heath told Jarrod about Cilla, and that seemed to ease Jarrod's mind quite a bit. He drifted off to sleep fairly quickly. "Is he doing all right?" Heath asked after Jarrod faded away.
"Yeah, the doctor was here, said it was all right for Jarrod to sleep if he wanted to," Nick said. "They'll keep him one more night. I told him we'd be off to wire Mother and Audra and find him a better place to live as soon as you got back. How long is this waitress gonna be here?"
Heath said, "She'll be here another night, too. She's burned pretty bad on the face, Nick. We need to try to help her out, too."
Nick got up from the chair. "All right, we'll figure that out. Let's get going. We got a lot of work to do."
XXXXXXX
Victoria read the telegram one more time, the one saying that Jarrod had been attacked. She was worried sick, waiting and waiting for more word from Nick and Heath, but it was after they had seen Jarrod at the hospital that they wired home again. Jarrod recovering. Hospital til tomorrow. Will look after his house and wire later. Nick.
"Well, thank heaven, that's something," Victoria said as Audra read over her shoulder.
"I wonder what happened," Audra said. "Why did someone attack him?"
"We'll find out why later," Victoria said.
"Do you think we ought to go to San Francisco?"
Victoria shook her head. "Not just yet. Not until we hear more from Nick and Heath. For now, he's all right and Nick and Heath are looking after him and his house. And maybe his bad luck will end."
XXXXXXX
After sending the wire home, Nick and Heath went to the site of Jarrod's house and got the contact information for Jarrod's insurance man. The clean-up of the property was beginning. Nick and Heath wondered what to do about that.
"We need to be too many places," Nick said. "We need to find him a place to live but we need to be here to go through this rubble, too."
"Tell you what," Heath said. "Let me go run down the insurance man and see if he can help us find a place for Jarrod to live, and I'll go looking for that. You stay here, help go through this stuff. I know he'll want his safe found, and probably any papers that don't look damaged."
"That won't be hard – there probably aren't any," Nick said.
"Well, if you find that safe today or anything else worth salvaging, we'll take it to his office. If I have time, there's something else I want to do – check that place where the waitress worked, see if I can find out where she lives, maybe line up some help for her when she gets out of the hospital."
"That's a whole long list of things there, Heath."
Heath sighed. "Yeah, it is, so I better get going. I'll be back here between four and five, so meet me here then, okay?"
"All right."
A big load was taken off Heath's shoulders when he found the insurance man. Painter was alarmed when Heath explained what had happened. "Good Lord, I had no idea he was in the hospital. Attacked, you say?"
"Trying to stop a man who had injured a waitress at a café," Heath explained. "He'll be all right. Probably be out of the hospital tomorrow, but we need a better place than a hotel room to take him to."
"Well," Painter said, "it just so happens I've been trying to find him to talk to him about that. I've found a rental only two blocks from his home, comparable property, decent lease and rent. I just need him to sign off on the paperwork."
"Mind if I go have a look at the place real quick?"
"Not at all." Painter handed him an envelope. "Here's the lease agreement. It will be in the insurance company's name, but we need him to agree to us doing it. Is he fit to sign off?"
"I'll talk to him about it. I'm sure he will be tomorrow if not today."
"Is anyone going through the rubble as it's cleared away?"
Heath nodded. "Our brother Nick. He knows what to look for. We'll have whatever he pulls aside be taken to Jarrod's office."
"I'll notify his secretary for you."
"Thanks. Oh, one other thing. The waitress Jarrod was trying to help – she'll need some help herself when she gets out of the hospital. She doesn't have any family. Nick and I will arrange and pay for it, but do you have anybody your company uses for anything like this? I'm out of my element here."
Painter nodded again. "Tell my secretary as you leave. She'll give you a couple names. It's kind of you to take care of that."
Heath felt a funny little lift inside when he thought about the girl – stupid, he thought, to feel that way when he'd hardly met her, and when her life was in such ruin. But it was the way she made him feel. "She seems like a special girl. Jarrod was hurt trying to help her. The least we can do is keep it up for him."
Thanks to Painter, Heath's list of chores was ticked off pretty quickly. He got three names of nurses who would work with someone at home from Painter's secretary. He checked out the rental house Painter had gotten for Jarrod. Looking through the window, he could see it was furnished and Heath decided it would do the trick. He checked with the café where the waitress worked and found out she lived in a boarding house close to the café. He checked it out with the landlady. Her room was small, but there was a communal living room and kitchen. Heath figured if it would not accommodate a visiting nurse, he would find her something more suitable. He knew she probably couldn't pay for anything at all anymore, not without a job, but he knew he could, at least for a while.
Heath checked out the nurses Painter's office had suggested. They were not far away from Cilla's place, and Heath met and talked to all three of them within two hours. He made his choice – a woman about Nick's age who was personable and was available for quite some time. Her name was Hilda Clay, and she had very good references. Heath didn't have time to check them out, but he recognized one of the names as an attorney Jarrod had worked with, and with that and Painter's recommendation, Heath was satisfied. She had a standard contract that Heath reviewed and found perfectly good, so he signed and gave her one of Jarrod's cards, writing his name and Nick's on the back. "I'll be in touch tomorrow as soon as we find out when she's going home, but be ready for it to be tomorrow," Heath told her.
"I'll be ready," she said.
Heath was back where Nick was working at Jarrod's ruined house before four. Covered with sweat and ash and standing beside a wagon where the safe, among precious few other things, was sitting, Nick looked surprised to see him. "Back already?"
Heath nodded. "I'm just very efficient, Nick."
"Then get some gloves on and help me out here."
Heath laughed but did as Nick asked. The work went twice as fast but there was very little more that was salvageable, at least in this day's load. By the time the workmen left, they had five wagonloads of debris to Nick and Heath's one half of a wagonload of saved books and paper, plus the safe. Nick and Heath drove the wagon to Jarrod's office, unlocked the door and took the safe and other material up there. After a quick bite for dinner, they went back to the hospital.
Jarrod was actually up and around. They found him in the hall, walking slowly with a cane but walking. "Well, look at you!" Nick said. "Just about good as new again!"
Jarrod smiled a little. "I went down to see Cilla Mills. She's feeling a bit better too. The police came to talk to her while I was there, so they were happy to kill two birds with one stone. And it looks like we'll both be out of here tomorrow morning."
"Good," Nick said.
"Jarrod, I hope you don't mind but I told Cilla we'd help her out, and I've hired a nurse to help her for a while," Heath said. "She's lost her job. I think she'll need help paying the rent."
"I don't mind, but will she?" Jarrod said. "Does she know what you've been up to?"
"Not the details, but if she objects, I'll back off. I'll go see her and then I'll be back up here, all right? Oh, and I've got some papers for you to sign about the new house the insurance company is renting for you."
Heath took off as he finished the last sentence. Jarrod gave him a wave and had to smile, watching him. "Our Heath is smitten."
Nick said, "What makes you say that?"
"I know the look," Jarrod said. "It's not that he feels bad for her – though he does. But something about that young lady is charming, even now. She's just Heath's type."
"Really?" Nick said. "Not my type?"
"Not at all," Jarrod said and began to walk back to his room.
"I hope she doesn't shoot him down, then," Nick said as they walked together. "Heath has a tendency to 'take care' of pretty girls."
Jarrod chuckled. "He does at that, but he understands if they object and he'll mind his own business if they tell him to."
Nick kept the slow pace with him. "How are you feeling?"
"All right as long as I don't push it too fast or too hard," Jarrod said. "Headache is easing off. But I'm gonna have to depend on you and Heath to help salvage anything from my house. I'm on restricted duty for the next ten days."
"We'll take care of it," Nick said. "Those new digs we got you ought to do you fine. It's a house not far from yours."
"Good, thanks. You can have my room at the Baldwin tonight. The key is in my pants pocket. Have you wired Mother and Audra about what's happened?"
"Yeah, and we'll wire again in the morning. Get you moved over to the new place tomorrow and stay with you there."
"I'll appreciate the company."
They went back into the ward where Jarrod's bed was. He gave a moan as he climbed back in.
"Head hurt?" Nick asked.
"Yeah," Jarrod said, "that and I was just reminded of the army."
Nick chuckled. "Hospitals, or winter quarters?"
"Both," Jarrod sighed.
